Invictus
by SoftServedSeaSalt
Summary: When there's no more room left in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth. SoRiku & Others Please Read and Review (Hiatus until Summer)
1. Chapter 1

Oh yay, Second story! :'D

Not sure how much I'll work on this until I finish my main story (Sea Salt & Sugar). Also only this first chapter will be in first person.

Enjoy~

**Disclaimer: **All characters owned by Square Enix.

* * *

_**Invictus**_

**Chapter One**

Whoever thought that on a day like today, I'd meet my first love?

_The day had started out normal, just like any other boring day sitting in this classroom. It was the beginning of September yet Radiant Gardens was still as hot as ever._

_I'm not one to regret my past but hell, if I knew almost everyone from it was going to die this way then I would've tried to change all the mistakes I've made with others. _

"Riku?" _And this is when it started._ "Riku?" _When hell decided to conquer the Earth. _"Riku!"

"Yeah?" I loosened from my thoughts, looking up at the teacher who had a disapproving look plastered on her face.

"Would you answer the question please?" She pointed to the chalkboard.

"Well-" To be honest, if not for the loud and horrendous screaming that just happened to occur in the hallway; my answer would've have been pure bull.

I, and everyone else, began to look towards the closed doorway, watching as students were trampling over each other in the halls try to run. "Hold on a second." The teacher angrily placed her book faced down on her desk, and went towards the door about to scold whomever it was that let the kids run rampage. "Hey! Quiet down!" No one listened to her. Of course. "Calm…" She froze, the look on face suddenly changing from angry to shock.

From the classroom you could hear the noise of what sounded like something growling and the screams getting louder and louder. The class shook when the intercom had turned on, the principle on the other end. "Everyone, this is an emergency! Evacuate from the building, now! Do not go near anyone suspicious or…" You could hear the microphone fall, and that same growling noise from earlier. But the most torturing sound of all was the screams from our principle. He grabbed a hold of the mic, seemingly fighting through whatever pain it was. "RUN, NOW!" And then it cut off and the class sat silent for a bit.

"What are you guys waiting for," The teacher took command. "Run!" We all stood up, some grabbing their belongings and other forgetting they even had any in the first place. All of them ran towards the door, but no not me. I stayed behind. "Riku!"

"I'll be fine." I said, unpacking most of the stuff from my backpack.

"I can't leave you here!"

"And you really think running out through the door is the safest thing right now," I asked, pulling my backpack on my back. "What's out there anyway?"

The teacher closed the door and pulled down the blinds, looking down at her feet. "Something monstrous…" She said.

I bit my bottom lip, trying to think of what I could do. "Look, Miss Lockhart-"

"Tifa, call me Tifa," She corrected me. "Now is not the time for formality."

"Alright, Tifa. We need to get out of here, but we have to wait for that crowd out there to die down," I explained. "If we go out there now, it'd slow us down from running away from whatever it is out there."

"And how do you know such a thing," She asked. "What if waiting in here is just waiting to die? There was more than one of them, what if they multiply to the point where there is no es-"

"We'll make it." I walked towards her, turning off the classroom light. "Now be quiet." I sat down, back against the door listening to the screams and noises. Tifa sat down with me as well, beginning to rip the side of her pencil skirt making me look at her awkwardly. "If we're going to half to run, I at least need to be able to." She whispered. Luckily for her she was also wearing loafers instead of the high heeled contraptions most female high school teachers wore. At least in this school.

"I think it's finally safe." I whispered to her, crouching myself up.

"Hold on," She scrawled over to the closet in the room beside her desk. Opening it she pulled out two wooden bats. "We shouldn't go out unarmed. Thankfully this room is where the baseball players store their things!" She threw me one. After catching it I reached up to the door handle and slowly opened it, peeking out to see an empty hallway. Minus all the blood and dead bodies at least.

"This is disgusting." I stood, Tifa stayed behind me.

"What is the plan?"

"Get out of here of course." Walking out into the hall I made sure to watch carefully as to where I was stepping.

"Riku." Tifa whispered, grabbing my arm tightly. I looked up to see one of those '_things_' make their way across the connecting hallway. It had looked pale blue with molting skin and blood all over its torso. I recognized it to look like a classmate of mine; one who had ran out just earlier from Tifa's orders. And I guess Tifa had realized that too from the gasp she made, which attracted its attention. It turned to us, growling and moaning. "Run!" I told her, turning the other way trying to get as far away from that…that zombie as quick as possible. It began to chase after us, more like quick pace itself in a walk. Luckily it wasn't fast like in some of the movies I've seen.

We ran into another empty classroom, sliding the door shut and making our way to the back of the room. I sighed in relief, thinking we were safe. But that wasn't the case when we heard it begin to bang on the door.

"Get in the closet!" Tifa whispered in a harsh tone. I nodded, opening the door to the closet to see a small brunette boy cowering over his hugged knees.

"Don't hurt me!" He said. His voice was worried, but soft and sweet.

"We're not the ones who want to hurt you." Tifa assured him. The door then broke open, the walker coming through.

"They are!" I tightened my grip on the bat. I don't know where my sudden strength and courage came from, but I charged at the monster. When I got close I hit the bat across its head, which completely detached itself from the rest of its body and hit into the wall.

My uniform and the bat became covered in blood, the decapitated body falling to the floor in front of me. I turned around to see Tifa comforting kneeling beside the boy, her hand on his back, looking up at me in surprise. I gave her a nervous smile and made my way back to the both of them, kneeling down to their level.

"Glad I listened to you!" She smirked.

"Yeah," I've watched too many movies and played too many games to end up dying in a moment like this. But even so, I was still scared. "Who are you, kid?"

He looked at me, his watery blue eyes staring at mine unsurely. This_ killed_ me. "Sora…Sora Fujioka," He sniffled. "Second year."

"I'm Tifa Lockhart." Tifa said, trying to smile. But in front of this boy it seemed a bit hard to. It was like he brought us into reality. While we were battling through this as if something that will be over once we leave, he was crying which made me realize this wasn't something that was as easy it seemed. If these zombies are in here, there must be more out there…

"Riku Masamune, third year," I grabbed his arm, pulling him up as I stood. "Tifa, I can't say that outside is any better than this. But we still have to get out of here as soon as possible."

"Right." Tifa nodded, standing up as well.

Suddenly I felt the boy embrace me around my torso tightly. "Senpai don't leave me!" He cried softly.

This made all the hairs on my body suddenly raise. "We're not going to leave you," I tried to play it cool. "But you have to listen to us carefully. And don't run off."

He nodded, agreeing to my rules and wiping the tears from his face.

"I think they react to sound," Tifa explained. "It didn't notice us until I made a loud noise."

"Guess we have to be quiet then." I said, concerning-ly eyeing Sora. He nodded his head in understanding.

We made our way out of the classroom and back into the hallway. "Do you think we'll find anyone else?" She whispered.

"We'll just have to wait and see."

Sora grabbed my hand. "If we find anyone we _have _to help them, senpai."

I tried not blush.

_This was going to be really hard._

* * *

_**Reviews are loved. **  
_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Which exit do you plan on taking?" Tifa whispered the silverette. Her brown eyes were carefully roaming every possible angle of the hall.

"Right now we're on the fourth floor," Riku began to think, tucking some of his hair behind his pierced ear. "I can't decide…It depends on where _they _are. Right now, we'd be lucky to even make it to the first floor."

"Can we go to the rest room?" Sora asked. The elder two looked back at him, glaring him down with flustered looks.

'_It's as if he's become completely oblivious to the fact that we're trying to save our lives…' _Riku thought, irritatingly rubbing his temple.

"Pleaseee?" The brunette pouted.

"Alright, just keep it down," Tifa reminded him. "There's a bathroom in the back on the third floor."

"The bathroom in the back of the third floor," Riku repeated, processing his thoughts. "There's a fire escape around that area, right?"

"Yes," Tifa said happily. "We could escape this hell hole from there."

'_And meet what waits outside.' _Riku sighed, but their silence was quickly interrupted by the sound of a scream from one of the rooms.

"Let's go!" Tifa said, running towards the noise.

"Sora," Riku said, running behind Tifa. "Wait outside the room once we get there."

"Okay." Sora responded, and he did just what Riku told him when they reached the correct door. Tifa put her hand on Riku's hand that sat on the indent of the door as he was about to pull it open.

"Wait," she said. "It seems awfully quiet."

Riku looked down at his feet unsurely, but felt the door open from the other side after a couple hesitating seconds. He looked up; he and Tifa moving back quickly.

"You're not dead, are you?" The thankfully alive person asked them. His hair was bright red and full of spikes cascading down the back, the teen's eyes had looked enticingly green contrasting with his hair nicely.

"Of course they're not dead!" The brunette girl behind him said, pursing her lips with her hands on her hips. Next to her stood a blue haired boy. "They probably heard Selphie's scream and came to check." He said.

Sora looked to the side, his face brightening in surprise as he embraced the red head. "Axel, it's you," He said happily. "Thank god, it's you!"

Riku watched Axel wrapped his arms around the cheerful brunette. "Who are you guys?" He asked the three of them. The girl made her way to the front. "Selphie Tilmitt," She introduced. "Third year and leader of the newspaper club."

"Name's Isa," The boy relaxing put his hands in his pockets. "Second year."

Sora turned around to look at Riku. "And this is Axel," He smiled. "He and I are in the same grade!"

'_This guy is younger than me?'_

Axel chuckled, running his fingers through his hair. "I used to protect this kid all through kindergarten and middle school."

"Guess you haven't been doing your job lately then." Riku said, making Axel's facial expression damper.

Sora went up to Riku and grabbed his hand. "Riku saved me." He looked up at Riku grinning.

"Quit wasting time," Tifa snapped at everyone. "Being reunited is heartwarming, but we've got to keep moving."

"She's right." Riku began to set forward.

"And what makes you guys the boss?!" Selphie asked, crossing her arms sassy-ly.

Riku turned to face her. "If you don't want to follow, you don't have to." He returned to looking the other way, pulling Sora along with him. As they got further and further he looked back other the other three pouting, though they didn't notice because they had already turned their backs and gone their own way.

The trio made their way carefully to the bathroom, having past a couple of walkers silently. Their plan was to only attack when being attacked.

Riku cupped his hands into the sink, filling them with water and putting them to his face. He washed away the dried blood from his face and arms and looked up into the mirror above the sink. The silverette was displeased to see his white uniform shirt covered in specks of blood.

"Have you thought of where to go when we get out of here?" Tifa asked, leaning against the bathroom wall.

The boy sighed. "No idea."

"Hmph," Tifa grinned. "All my days of teaching you, I would've never guessed you to be someone who could keep themselves alive in a time like this."

Sora walked out of the stall and over to the sink, beginning to wash his hands.

Riku smirked. "It's only been a couple hours or less," he said. "Who even knows if I can even make it through an entire day; or however many days to come."

"I'm done!" Sora chimed, wiping his hands dry with a paper towel.

"From the fire escape we'll be led to ground. After that we'll have to figure out what to do from there as we keep going." Riku explained.

"Are we going to check on our families?" Sora asked. The brunette frowned when he saw Riku bite his lip.

"We could," The silverette said. "But you should expect the worst." The brunette pouted, grabbing Riku's hand. The left the bathroom and headed towards the fire escaped. Riku went first, Sora in between him and Tifa.

'_Out here looks terrible.' _Tifa thought, looking at all the abandoned displaced cars within the road. Looking down she saw some of the living dead beneath them on ground level.

"Second floor." It was as if Riku had read her mind.

The silverette stepped down on the first metal step, hearing it creak and squeak. He let go of Sora's hand. Breathing out and closing his eyes, he went down the last ten steps quickly. He peered over the edge, watching the walkers herd toward the brick wall right beneath them.

Riku let out a sigh of relief. _'Good thing they're not smart.' _He motioned toward Sora to come down next. The brunette reached halfway before Riku jumped, seeing some walkers appear and the entrance to the second door fire exit. They hit onto the door, trying to get through. "Go back up!" Riku yelled, running up the steps behind Sora.

As Riku made it up the unsturdy staircase broke beneath his feet, plunging towards the ground with a loud clanks. "Shit." Riku said, he was hanging onto what was left of the fire escape. Tifa and Sora grabbed his arms, pulling him up. They ran up to the middle of the crossroads of the three-way hallway, walkers coming in at them on both sides.

The raven-head and silverette went back to back, Sora huddled in between them. "Stay alive!" Tifa said before charging at into her part of the hallway.

'_Not like I intend to die.' _

Riku went to charge in on his side, but stopped when he noticed someone attackingly cutting through the crowd. The silverette grinned.

"Hah!" The person yelled in attack. He held two wooden katanas, his uniform covered in blood stains. He swiftly ran past Riku, heading towards Tifa's side of the hallway. It only took him minutes to finish off the hoard of walkers, his agility and preciseness helping him through. When he was done he stood up straight, out of attacking position, and looked at Riku.

"I'd hoped we'd find you." Riku said, his lips still curved in grin.

"Hmph!" The blonde grunted.

"Who is he?" Sora stood up from his crouch.

"My ex-best friend." Riku answered.

"Wait," Tifa gasped. "Aren't you the elite captain of the Kendo club?!"

"Yeah," The boy tightened his grip on his katanas. "Roxas Strife." The look on his face wasn't pleasant, more like agitating-ly frustrated.

Riku looked at the pink dice that was hanging off the edge of the handle of one of Roxas's katanas. "Is that Xion's?" He asked.

"She died trying to protect me after Sensei* got bit," Roxas' blue eyes wandered to the ground and then back up at the trio. "I'm going to the roof."

"Ehh," Tifa was surprised. "What sense does that make!?"

"It doesn't. But my brother is up there, and I need to get him." Roxas turned around, beginning to walk away.

"What if you can't make it back down?" Sora pouted.

Roxas turned his head. "It's not a matter of can or can't. Some things you just do," He told him. "That's what my Sensei taught me."

"Would you mind us joining you?" Riku asked.

"What!? Are you crazy Riku," Tifa yelled. "We're almost out of here and you want to go back up?!"

"Shhh," Riku reminded her to keep her voice down. "We need him. Did you not just see him take down about twenty of those things on his own?"

Tifa let out a heavy sigh. "Fine."

"Join me if you want," Roxas turned to face them. "But I'm **not **a fucking babysitter."


	3. Chapter 3

Long time no update for this story hmm?~ I felt in the mood to continue this one, I'm going to keep the "hiatus till summer" thing up though because I might just again decide to wait till my summer break to update this. I'm unsure if I want to make this rated M.

**Disclaimer: All Characters Owned by Square Enix**

* * *

**Invictus**

**Chapter Three**

"Senpai," Sora tugged at the silverette's shirt. "How come you and him are _ex-_best friends?" He was referring to the blonde who was leading them, their new acquaintance. Riku watched Roxas behind. The boy looked calm but somehow alert at the same time, ready to attack whatever came his way.

"That's a story for another time." Riku brushed off the topic.

"We hooked up with each other," Roxas however felt _delighted_ to tell the brunette. "And my feelings were one sided, so he naturally decided that we couldn't talk anymore. It's funny how you _need _me now though, isn't it?"

Riku frowned. Roxas was the kind of person to hold even a slight grudge on anyone who's hurt him. "What do you plan on doing," The silverette asked. "After you retrieve your brother?"

"I guess I would go with you guys right," The blonde replied, his voice softening. "The alive have to stick together. At least that's how it worked in those comic books you would read and the games you would play."

"You mean," Tifa eyes went wide. "You've been guiding us off of video games?!"

Riku sighed. "Loosely."

"Cute!" Sora chimed with his warm and genuine smile on his face. The silverette blushed, batting his eye lashes a couple times.

Before long, the group made it to the roof. They had fought through the zombies that noticed them and tried to avoid the ones that didn't. Roxas had seemed to be their main and most favored weapon, but Riku knew that he couldn't let Roxas be in the most danger all of the time.

"_A class?" _Riku looked at many of his peers sitting together in a corner on the roof, supervised by a teacher.

"C'mon Ven." Roxas held out his hand to his brother, the one he had made his way to the roof in search for. Said brother looked up, hugging his knees. He grabbed Roxas' hand, being pulled up.

"Hey," The teacher yelled. "You can't just take one of my students! I'm liable for all of them. Keeping them safe is what I'm supposed to do!"

"He's my brother," Roxas retorted. "Don't tell me what to do." He gritted his teeth, making his way back to the three he had decided to stay with.

"Ahh," Sora's mouth went wide in awe at seeing the two. "They're twins, aren't they? That's adorable!"

"And _I'm _his teacher!" The teacher grabbed onto Ven's shoulder. Roxas pulled Ven behind him, looking up to the teacher a couple inches away from her face.

"If you don't let us go I'll kill you." He threatened. The teacher's lips began to quiver before she gave in, walking away in her defeat. Roxas looked back at Ven. He saw him smiling and decided to grin back.

"How did you know I was up here," Ventus asked, his brother leading him to the others. "I wanted to go and look for you, but my teacher wouldn't let me."

"Xion told me she saw your class headed there."

"Where is she?"

"They got her," Roxas bit his lip. "I was being too reckless, a-and…"

Ventus squeezed his hand tight. "It's okay, Roxy."

"Are you guys ready?" Tifa asked.

"Who are you guys?" Ventus asked, his eyes shifting from person to person. _"Riku's here…"_

"I'm Tifa Lockhart." Tifa put a hand to her chest, her lips curved up into a soft smile.

"Sora Fujioka."

"I'm sure you remember me." Riku put his hand on his hip.

"My name's Ventus," Ven let go of Roxas' hand. "But you can call me Ven."

A scream emitted from Ven's class in the corner of the roof. "Hayner!" A brunette girl screamed. The rest of the class went into alarm, watching the boy they knew as Hayner attack the girl, suddenly biting into her shoulder. He pulled her skin, ripping it off. Blood began to pool around her, Hayner not stopping.

"C'mon!" Riku quickly pulled Sora along with him away from the roof exit. The others had moved out of the path as well, seeing a stampede of students run for it.

"Don't move." Roxas ordered his brother before running in to finish off the zombie that had attacked the girl. He impaled his wooden katana through its head with brute force, watching its movements cease. Roxas put his foot on the zombie's chest, dislodging his katana.

The others ran over as the scene cleared.

"What the fuck was that?" Roxas said, referring to how they had all seemed fine before. He saw Tifa kneel down to the girl's aid.

"He had gotten bit earlier," Ventus explained. "We thought he'd be okay, but I guess you turn into one of those things once you get bitten."

"_Like sensei…" _Roxas thought.

"In other words, you get infected," Riku sighed. He took a look at the girl on the ground. Her green eyes were shedding tears as she held her shoulder in pain. "What's your name?" He asked.

Her response was "Olette."

"…Olette," Riku slowly reached for Roxas' hand. "Rest in peace." He grabbed the hilt of the katana and struck through the left side of Olette's chest. Tifa quickly jumped back, watching the girl struggle before she went limp.

"Why would you do that?!" Sora went into an outburst.

Riku looked at the brunette, shocked. "She was bitten; she would've turned into one of them."

"You don't know that," Sora said. "What if she was able to survive?" His eyes began to fill with tears, and he wiped them with the back of his hand.

"It's an infection Sora," Riku explained sternly. "Once you get bitten it spreads through your blood stream and affects the rest of your body."

"Either way she would've bled to death." Tifa told him.

"So if I get bitten, you'll just kill me too?" The brunette cried.

"N-no, Sora." Riku's eyes fell to the floor. _"I'm not sure."_

The girls corpse began to reanimate, hollow screams and moans emitting from her lips. Roxas struck her down, hitting into her head like he had done with Hayner.

"You have to hit them through the brain." He said.

"Sora," Ventus began. "At times like these, you can't risk anything. Olette would've held us back, and what she turned? That would've been a danger to the five of us."

The brunette sniffled, not responding.

"We can't keep wasting time," Tifa told them. "Sora, I'm sorry but we'll have to discuss our humanity later. Right now we have to get out of here and keep each other alive."

Riku went to grab Sora's hand, but Sora denied it and grabbed on to Ven. The silverette rolled his eyes, going towards the exit.

Roxas grinned.

* * *

**Reviews are always loved!~**


End file.
